[D'sP] Fortune Attunement - Chapter 507 (Patreon)

Doyle ponders on it, but not for too long as he already has a question to ask of Ally. ‘So, how does world energy, or I guess in this case Mana, become aspected? Because it seems I’m going to need to do at least a little bit of work in that direction.’

Ally, ‘Well, to start, it doesn’t. Or rather, it doesn’t in nature. Every time someone lights a fire with a spark of Mana or similar? They’re technically making aspected Mana. Very lightly aspected and the aspect goes away upon use, so obviously not what you want.’

Doyle, ‘I’ve seen a few spells cast. Wouldn’t I have felt them being aspected?’

Ally shrugs, ‘Not particularly. The aspect part happens moments before the spell goes off, and not all spells aspect their Mana. Not even all “elemental” spells will do so.

‘In fact, the better low-level spells like “Fire Ribbon” avoid such a step. For a person to change atmospheric or personal Mana into aspected Mana is a very inefficient process. The reason I used lighting a fire with a spark as an example is because most people don’t even bother with a spell. They just use Mana to make a fire, which naturally leads towards some concept related to fire or burning.’

Doyle, ‘If the good spells avoid it, why does it seem like the next step in magic?’

Ally shrugs, ‘Like I said, it is very inefficient. At higher levels, both numerical and in terms of understanding, the process becomes easier. It’s like going from someone trying to light a fire with two sticks for the first time to either being very practiced at using two sticks or having a lighter.

‘Both work, and at that point they focus more on the specific concepts within the aspects. So instead of just trying to aspect their Mana to fire, they might focus on the concept of burning when forming the aspected Mana.’

Doyle, ‘So levels and presumably stats, will allow you to brute force it, while practice streamlines the process. Fair enough.’

Ally, ‘Most stats can be used, but the mental stats are the ones that directly help. So, like, Intelligence gives more oomph, basically being able to rub the sticks together harder and faster. Wisdom makes your mental energies more nimble in manipulating Mana.

‘While Presence? Literally the stat for mental projection. It is like preparing better sticks. Though, of course, raising all of them also helps with comprehension. Less of a single stat effect and more of an overall quality of the mind, kind of improvement. Not that such a thing can replace a person’s innate talent for comprehending things. A person born with an innate comprehension towards fire will be better at figuring out fire concepts than a normal person at the same level of power.’

Doyle, ‘Okay, that does make me wonder if I have any sort of talent like that.’

Ally shakes her head, ‘Those sorts of things are rare. Besides, you already had the zero Karma thing. Which while harmful as a human, can be seen as highly useful for a dungeon core as it represented not a lack of Karma, but karmic traits so counter to a normal human that it couldn’t be calculated. After all, when you turned into a dungeon core, it wasn’t zero anymore.’

Doyle, ‘That’s a shame.’

Ally shrugs, ‘Meh, better that your uniqueness is useful now. Wouldn’t it suck to find out you could have been some sort of sword prodigy now that you can’t do anything with it?’

Doyle, ‘Eh, I probably could have used it for something. Sword wielding kobolds? Something.

‘Anyway, what is the other way attunement happens?’

Ally, ‘Well, there are a few manners in which world energy attunes. Not even out in the wilds, but everywhere, including within civilized spaces. Though, admittedly, deep wilderness is where you’re most likely to find it.’

Doyle, ‘Wait, it can happen in towns? Or do you mean metal attunement in a giant scrapyard?’

Ally, ‘That is a possibility? Though it isn’t the only one. The most common “civilized” attunement is fortune.’

Doyle, ‘Fortune? Sounds like the hidden fourth soul stat or an alternate name for Luck.’

Ally, ‘It would actually be more connected to Karma. In fact, your zero Karma thing would have meant fortune like this wouldn’t affect you.

‘See, this is a nation’s “fortune” or a racial “fortune”. Most often found in kingdoms with a strong central capital that doesn’t move or when a world has a people who are being preyed upon by an outside force. Anyway, fortune is an attunement that bends the world around the target.

‘Very hard to manipulate and most times won’t be noticed. You need a large population of sapients with some central thing where the fortune can gather. Some civilizations will have rights and rituals that help it along. Things like ancestor worship or paying respect through proxies to the central authority.’

Doyle, ‘So in my stories, those times when a kingdom has their national luck and strength being represented by an energy dragon or some such has a real-world counterpart?’

Ally shrugs, ‘Very rare for fortune to take a visible form? Though when it does, mythical beasts are the most common. Dragons are up there, phoenixes slash vermilion birds and black tortoise snakes are also popular. The other pole of classic creatures, the white tiger are actually a bit rare.

‘This has nothing to do with the actual beast, but nations most likely to have their fortune represented by a white tiger? Yeah, they tend not to be stable enough for a visible form to happen. An expansionist nation will tend to have the makeup of their people changing too much.

‘And the other side of that, the black tortoise snake? Theorized to be the most common. The fortune of such a nation simply doesn’t need to become visible all that often. They tend to be ancient civilizations that have managed to get through stagnation and settled into longevity. However, most visible forms of fortune tend to be either smoke-like or something nationally important, if unique.’

Doyle, ‘That is interesting, though we’ve really gotten off topic. Well, not off-topic? But a bit of a meander around the central issue. How does attunement happen when not being forced by a mage casting a spell?’

Ally, ‘Oh right, yeah, that happens through compounding. With fortune, that happens through karmic magnification. Everyone who is part of the group directs their sense of belonging towards a central location where the intent compounds on the world energy. Then, after a long enough time, said energy becomes attuned and becomes a part of the group as well on a conceptual level.’

Doyle, ‘Neat, but still not what I’m looking for.’

Ally waves him off, ‘I know, I’m just getting it out of the way, because the next two are the primary methods you get attuned Mana. In fact, they’re the only ones I’m going to go into right now.

‘These two are flow and pressure. Flow is most similar to that first one. Except instead of intent-driven, this involves the simple flow of the environment and a lack of flow.

‘The most common example of this are wind-attuned canyons. Now, wind and air in general are everywhere, right? Why isn’t the entire atmosphere attuned to air or at least the middle atmosphere away from the land and space?

‘That is because you need a compounding. With the windy canyon, that comes from the wind moving, but whatever energy being attuned, not. Canyons are good for this because even though not earth attuned, Mana around stone will flow slower. So wind is whipping through much slower moving Mana. This over time will result in the air attunement building up.’

Doyle, ‘That would explain why stories tended to always have some canyon being heavily air-attuned. I always figured the fast winds did it.’

Ally shrugs, ‘They’re stories, so yeah, that might have been it. But now for the other way it happens: pressure. This one is about the quantities and stresses involved. Most well known with deep-sea trenches.

‘Basically, even though the water does move, the mass of the water and the pressure of there being so much water compounds the nature of water into the mystical energies present there. This kind of attunement develops when quantity develops a quality all its own. Which is why I don’t think it will work for your dungeon quite yet.’

Doyle, ‘If the pressure method won’t work, why mention it?’

Ally, ‘Maybe you'll figure something out? Though more I figured you might want to combine the two. As while you might not get ocean trench depths of water, you can get deep enough water and shotgun Mana through it or some such.

‘There is also the matter that it shows you can attune things in multiple manners. I’m sure there are other ways to do this, so making sure you know other methods are possible isn’t the worst plan.’

Doyle, ‘Oh, speaking of other methods, can you attune Mana by having the material not move, but the Mana does? Because I figure it will be a lot easier pushing Mana through rock than moving the rock instead.’

Ally, ‘Eh. I’m not going to say it won’t. However, you’re trying to attune the Mana, right? Well, even though that can impart an attunement, it doesn’t go anywhere. Any particular bit of Mana will keep moving, quickly losing that partial attunement.’

Doyle, ‘But it can work?’

Ally, ‘Yes, but it tends to form in areas you’re going to find pressure-based attunement. After all, it doesn’t matter if it would slowly lose attunement after leaving if it never leaves. If a Mana flow develops through an ocean, you’ll get this.’

Doyle, ‘What about an earth attunement? You mention a flow in the ocean, but what about in a mountain or deep underground? Is the bedrock of a planet just one giant mass of earth-attuned world energy?’

Ally shakes her head, ‘While deep underground might be an extreme condition for us, it isn’t extreme for the environment. Otherwise, we’d probably all be dead. Just think of the sun! A giant mass of fire. If that was all fire-attuned, the light itself would be setting stuff in fire and the temperature would always be rising.

‘No, you need something special to attune things. That’s why it is a deep-sea trench developing an attunement from pressure. That’s why a canyon develops an air attunement and not an extensive field where the wind doesn’t stop. After all, yes, it does depend on the Mana moving slower, but it will be doing that close to the ground.’

Doyle, ‘Is there some definition of special? Because technically, planets are special compared to the amount of vacuum between stuff.’

Ally shrugs, ‘Locally special. Mystical energies tend to be human-scale in this universe. The sun? Way too big. Way too much fire. Oh, sure, there’s almost certainly a core of attuned world energy. But only on a scale similar to how much water-attuned Mana you’d get from a sea trench. To develop larger reserves of attuned materials, someone needs to terraform for it.’

Doyle, ‘Is that because they tightly pack areas that can develop attunement or is it because of the “human” touch?’

Ally shrugs, ‘I would guess both? This is dealing with literal magic, so adding in a sapient’s touch likely tweaks things. Human scale also means changes made on that scale are effective.’

Doyle, ‘Well, maybe that will help me then. I’m still human-scale, right? I was human at some point, after all.’

Ally, ‘It certainly won’t hurt. Though I suspect that you might be able to cheat once you get the attuned Mana. Presumably you’ll be able to make it?’

Doyle, ‘I won’t depend on it. Besides, I will have a thing set up for creating attuned Mana.’

That Was Inevitable - Chapter 506

Kinda Hard To Monitor - Chapter 508